View full sizeEric Hammonds, pictured several days after a March 2004 wreck that killed one woman and injured several others. On Dec. 4 he was denied a reduction of his 41-year sentence.

MOBILE, Alabama – A judge on Wednesday denied a convicted man’s request of a shorter sentence resulting from his 2005 conviction on manslaughter and assault charges stemming from a drunk-driving incident that killed a mother of two and wounded others, all in the same wedding party.

Eric Rodney Hammonds appeared in front of Circuit Court Judge Ben Brooks after serving nine years of a 41-year sentence in the death of 25-year-old Rita "Michelle" Broglen in March 2004.

According to trial testimony, Hammonds – a habitual DUI offender with a long list of arrests and convictions – consumed 20 beers and 10 shots of whiskey in one sitting at a Lott Road bar before getting into his car and plowing into a van filled with women returning home from a bridal party. Hammonds then fled the scene, testimony showed.

He was originally found guilty of murder, along with two counts of second-degree assault, and sentenced to 99 years in prison. But the more serious charge was reduced to manslaughter after an appellate court ruling, and the sentence was stepped back to 20 years, to run consecutively with the two 10-year sentences for assault.

He was also sentenced to a year in prison for leaving the scene of the accident.

On Wednesday, Hammonds told Brooks that he was extremely remorseful and was asking that his sentences, which total more than 40 years, be changed to run concurrently, or simultaneously, which would cut the total time in half.

Hammonds’ attorney, Michael McDuffie, told the judge that his client has had no disciplinary issues while incarcerated and was currently doing work for the mayor of Childersburg, Ala., through a work-release program. McDuffie said Hammonds is an “ideal candidate” for leniency and is looking for a time frame when he “reasonably expect” to be released.

“He’s trying to show the court and society that he has managed to reform both his outlook on life and the tremendous guilt he carries,” McDuffie said.

Hammonds, dressed in a grey prison jumpsuit, directly addressed Brooks and said his actions were those of a younger, lesser, man.

“(This was) one of the worst mistakes I’ve ever made in my life,” he said. “I never wanted anyone to get hurt.

“Every day I live with this, I’m so sorry to the family.”

The 37-year-old said he is a “changed man . . . willing to do whatever, it doesn’t matter what it is.”

Brooks said he believed Hammonds was “sincerely remorseful,” but that he couldn’t even consider amending the sentence without the victim’s family present to speak to their own wishes in the matter.

“Your life and your family are destroyed at this point and that terrible tragedy destroyed the other family,” the judge told him. “There is a victim’s family out there who has to live without their family member.”

______________________________________

This post was updated to correct information from the family about the victim who lost her life, and to include her nickname.